LUCASVILLE, Ohio - Frank Spisak, a self-proclaimed Nazi who killed three people at Cleveland State University nearly 30 years ago in a racism-fueled rampage, was executed by injection Thursday morning.

Spisak expressed no remorse for his crimes when given a chance to say his final words. Instead, he read a handwritten note -- in German -- with verses one through seven of Chapter 21 in the Bible's Book of Revelations.

Spisak, who wore a Hitler-style mustache and saluted the Nazi leader during his 1983 trial, struggled at times to read the note clearly, complaining that the words were blurry.

"Heil herr," Spisak concluded.

He was pronounced dead at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility at 10:34 a.m. Spisak, 59, was the 42nd Ohio inmate executed since 1999 and the first executed this year. He spent more than 27 years on death row.

Over the course of several months in 1982, Spisak, driven by his Nazi beliefs, killed three people at CSU - the Rev. Horace Rickerson; CSU student Brian Warford; and Timothy Sheehan, an assistant superintendent for buildings and grounds at the university. Spisak also shot John Hardaway, a factory worker, and Coletta Dartt, a CSU employee.

Spisak would go on "hunting parties" and targeted Rickerson, Warford and Hardaway because they were black, according to his parole records.

Relatives of Sheehan and Warford witnessed the execution, along with Hardaway, U.S. District Judge Don Nugent, who prosecuted Spisak, and Jim Oliver, a retired law enforcement officer who investigated the shootings.

Jeffrey Duke, Warford's brother, became upset as he waited for Spisak to enter the execution chamber. A monitor in the witness viewing area -- separated from the execution chamber only by a window -- showed medical staff in a nearby room preparing Spisak's veins to receive the injection of sodium thiopental.

Duke said he would prefer that Spisak be connected to a "generator" or "batteries."

"A person like that, thinking he could just kill people because he didn't like the color of their skin or religion," Duke said.

Spisak -- clean-shaven with dark colored boots on his feet -- then walked into the chamber and was strapped to a bed. He looked up and waved to his lawyers, Michael Benza and Alan Rossman, and Bill Kimberlin, a Lorain Community College psychology professor who befriended Spisak while researching death row inmates.

Warden Donald Morgan then put a microphone to Spisak's face and asked him if he would like to say any last words.

"Yes, I would," Spisak said. "I would like to read from the Holy Bible."

A prison staffer held up Spisak's handwritten note as he recited the Bible verses in German. A spokesman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction provided reporters with copies of the note before the execution. But Spisak struggled to read his own words, drawing some amused chuckles from the victim's relatives.

"Speak English, you fool," said Eric Barnes, another brother of Warford's.

Barnes held a piece of paper with two pictures of his brother, one as a baby and the other as a young man. Warford was 17 when Spisak shot him.

As Spisak stammered through his statement, Cathy Sheehan Daly, Timothy Sheehan's daughter, leaned over to Duke and said, "He's making it up."

Spisak finished his five-minute statement and the injection began to flow. He let out a few deep inhalations, making a snoring sound. He was pronounced dead 10 minutes later.

Spisak claimed he no longer was sympathetic to the Nazi movement in an interview with the Ohio Parole Board on Jan. 4, yet he told the board he was reading a biography of Hitler at the time. Spisak claimed to be a more tolerant person.

The relatives of victims and others who witnessed the execution declined to be interviewed afterward.

In a statement, the Sheehan family said they will continue to celebrate Timothy Sheehan's life. Brendan Sheehan, Timothy's son and now a Cuyahoga County Common Pleas judge, and other family members who did not witness the execution were at a nearby church Thursday morning.

"Today, we chose to celebrate the life of husband and father, Timothy Sheehan, not the death of Frank Spisak," the statement said. "We are grateful that the justice system has worked and appreciate those in the criminal justice system whose diligent efforts have helped bring this matter to a final resolution."

Cora Warford, Warford's mother, said in a statement: "In memory of my baby boy Brian Warford, I can finally say justice has been served. If one can say this brings closure, I can say it is peace of mind for me and my family. Spisak will have to stand before a higher court one day as we all will and may God have mercy on his soul."

Spisak's lawyers had tried to delay the execution. They pleaded with the Ohio Parole Board and Gov. John Kasich to spare his life because he is mentally ill with a bipolar disorder. But the board decided, and Kasich agreed, the nature of Spisak's crimes outweighed concerns about his mental health.

An appeal filed with the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this week also was denied. Last year, the Supreme Court upheld his death sentence, reversing a previous ruling that Spisak's sentencing hearing was unconstitutional.

Before his conviction, Spisak experimented with cross-dressing and was confused about his gender, preferring to be called Frances Anne.

Numerous mental-health professionals evaluated Spisak, who pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, before his trial. He was deemed competent when he killed.

After the execution, Spisak's lawyers lamented the state's killing of a mentally ill man.

"We know what the media is going to say about Frances Spisak. But the truth is Frances was seriously mentally ill and committed the crimes because of this mental illness, not because of hate," Benza and Rossman said in a statement. "Maybe some day we will see executions of mentally ill people for what it is: barbaric."

Judge Sheehan, reached after the execution, said Spisak knew what he was doing when he killed his father. He said Spisak's final words in German only cemented that belief. "He showed his true colors in the execution," Sheehan said.

Spisak's will be Ohio's last execution using the drug sodium thiopental. The drug's maker objected to its use in executions and said it would stop production, so Ohio will be the first state with a one-drug injection process using pentobarbital, a sedative used during heart surgery.

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